Some beer updates

My standard beer in the evening is a bargain: Storm low alcohol (2.7% alcohol) lager from Aldi.  You get what you pay for (at $21 for a slab it's a lot better than generic mineral water at 89c per 1.5l).

We did get some "bargains" recently from Get Wines Direct.  In conjunction with a friend I ended up with a dozen Newcastle Brown and a dozen Tetley's Smooth Flow.
  • It turns out that Newcastle Brown is now brewed by Heineken and as a result is much blander than I recall the beer known in the '60s as "Journey into Space".
  • The Tetley's was an interesting creamy brew with a disconcerting habit (12 cans out of 12, and my friend had the same experience) of frothing furiously.  This may be related to them being past the "best before date by a couple of months.
As I said, you get what you pay for.

More recently it was back to Plonk for some interesting brews:
  • Box Steam "Dark and Handsome".  Pommie.  Yep, dark it was and very tasty.  The bottle rabbited about I K Brunel who seemed to have some connection with the location of the Brewery.  Very good.
  • Plonk was doing an Octoberfest promotion so I got some Bavarian bottles.  The first of these was Hofbrau Oktoberfestbier.  I'd regard it as a lager style but at 6.3% one to be careful of.  Quite a complex taste with lots of body.  2 yums!
  • Bootleg Brewery from Margaret River (WA for the overseas reader) have produced Settlers Pale Ale.  Not unduly strong at 4.8% but very full bodied and with a fair degree of complexity.  If I believed in tasting wheels I would certainly notice some lemon tones in this.
  • Another Australian offering.  4 Pines Keller Door Oktoberfest beer.  Their tasting wheel suggests Caramel and Toffee as a result of malt.  What else does malt taste like?  Definitely an interesting sup and much cheaper to catch the Manly ferry than to fly to Munich.  Better League at Brookie also.
  • Back to the UK!  Young's Double Chocolate Stout: surely the best thing to come out of Bedford (apart from a few GM trucks)!  Dense and excellent dark choco taste.  Not too headache inducing at 5.2% but definitely with some authority.  Its hard to imagine a full night drinking this but as a liqueur or an apero just about unbeatable!
  • Germany gives the best Oktoberfest!  This was Erdinger Weissbbrau. It started off with a nifty alcohol rating of 5.7%!  A lovely, full not-too-bitter wheat beer!  It fits a different situation to the chocolate stout so I don't say which was better.
Over to you.  The nice people at Plonk are waiting to hear from your wallets!

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